Let’s do some word association. If we say “Cyril Despres,” what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? The Dakar, right? The 36-year-old Frenchman only started racing Enduro in 1998 and entered the rally for the first time, while it was still being held in Africa, in 2000. By 2002 he’d won his first stage and in 2005, riding for KTM, he won the rally outright. He won again in 2007 and in 2010, success he hopes to repeat when the 2011 Dakar begins in Buenos Aires on January 1. Here, Red Bull profiles its extraordinary athlete and we’ve thrown in 41 high-res images of Cyril in action, both in rallying and Enduro, for good measure.